Social workers worldwide play a pivotal role in delivering social services to those in need of such services. Designated social workers (DSWs) deliver statutory services pertaining to the protection of children in need of care and protection. All social workers are confronted by several professional risk factors that jeopardise their well-being; yet risks specifically observed in DSWs support the plea to enhance their resilience. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological inquiry was to explore pathways of resilience among resilient South African DSWs by studying relevant literature and examining South African DSWs’ lived experiences. A secondary purpose was to draw on these experiences and literature to develop guidelines for South African DSW supervisors who may encourage the promotion of DSW resilience. Conducting a qualitative research synthesis was the first step and resulted in the confirmation of social worker risk and a deficient understanding of South African DSW resilience. An advisory panel of social work, DSW, and resilience experts assembled and formulated indicators of resilience in resilient South African DSWs, namely: a value-embedded life, having a support network, and having personal strengths, which, next, facilitated the identification of 15 resilient South African DSWs through snowball sampling. These 15 DSWs wrote narratives and were interviewed through semi-structured interviews in order to explore their lived experiences of workplace risks and their resilience processes. The findings concluded that these DSWs adapted to workplace adversities by living a purpose- and practice-informing creed, enjoying supportive collaborations, engaging in constructive transactions, and accentuating the positive. Guidelines for South African DSW supervisors, which emerged from these findings and literature, were proposed to be framed by reflective supervision as a step towards promoting South African DSW resilience. / PhD (Social Work), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Il lavoro di ricerca è dedicato ai Servizi di Child Protection della regione Lombardia. Il disegno del lavoro è peculiare, composto da due parti che sorreggono l’obiettivo generale che si articola su due livelli di analisi complementari fra loro. L’intento è stato descrivere e analizzare la realtà dei servizi di tutela minorile della Regione in ordine a due dimensioni: le forme di gestione e la pratica operativa. Per la prima, è stata effettuata una ricognizione sulle forme di gestione relative al Servizio tutela minori di ciascun Comune lombardo: questa operazione ha da un lato costituito un risultato importante in sé andando a colmare un vuoto di materiale disponibile a livello ufficiale, e dall’altro è stato propedeutico all’indagine operativa che ha costituito la seconda parte del progetto. Nella seconda parte della ricerca, l’indagine ha riguardato l’attività degli assistenti sociali incardinati dentro le rispettive organizzazioni, con riferimento ad opinioni e comportamenti. L’idea di coinvolgere la popolazione degli assistenti sociali lombardi in un’indagine quantitativa (il tasso di risposta ha superato il 70%) nasce in risposta a quesiti che nei sistemi di tutela minorile risultano pendenti, la cui esplorazione, fino ad oggi parziale, potrebbe risultare utile alla programmazione dei Servizi, alla formazione degli operatori, alle scelte di politica sociale. Un valore aggiunto alla ricerca è rappresentato dall’ideazione di strumenti di rilevazione costruiti ad hoc / The purpose of the research is to gain data about the Child Protection system in an Italian Region (Lombardia). The work developed in two parts: one concerned the organizational form and the other the work practice of the practitioners. In Lombardia there are a wide type of Child Protection organizations: the institutional mission is the same but the modalities to seek it are numerous, for example in association with other towns, through a new institution, or sovereignty The official documentation about this theme is lacking: in this project has been realized a complete reconnaissance of the organizational forms with the assistance of the data collected through a survey administered to 200 managers. The second part of the research aimed to represent the work practices of the fieldwork. Involving the 70% of the practitioners committed in the Child Protection work in this Region, the survey realized underlines the opinions (about the workload, the competences and the abilities, the level of stress,..) and the activities done during a work week. To collect the data (analyzed with a statistical program), the research tools are ideated especially.

This thesis is concerned with cultural connection and its role in creating cultural permanence when planning for Indigenous children and youth in care. Its goal is to mitigate the current path of disconnection and imbalance for Indigenous children and youth in care and to recommend an ecological, holistic approach to child welfare practice. It comprises a literature review that documents theories and practices to support belonging, cultural permanence, and cultural identity for Indigenous children while supporting meaningful connections with family, culture, and community. This information and analysis will be applied to the care of children and youth being served by Northwest Inter-Nation Family and Community Services Society (NIFCS) in British Columbia. The study’s findings will highlight guidance to assist social workers in centering cultural traditions that promote cultural strengths, resiliency, and a sense of belonging for Indigenous children and youth. This thesis will provide suggestions for interacting with the Indigenous community, parents, relatives, workers, and other delegated agencies. Finally, this thesis will explore how one social worker’s dream influences the direction of her practice to build on cultural strengths and spiritual resiliency. / Graduate / 0452 / 0631 / 0628 / kbennett@nifcs.org

This thesis is concerned with cultural connection and its role in creating cultural permanence when planning for Indigenous children and youth in care. Its goal is to mitigate the current path of disconnection and imbalance for Indigenous children and youth in care and to recommend an ecological, holistic approach to child welfare practice. It comprises a literature review that documents theories and practices to support belonging, cultural permanence, and cultural identity for Indigenous children while supporting meaningful connections with family, culture, and community. This information and analysis will be applied to the care of children and youth being served by Northwest Inter-Nation Family and Community Services Society (NIFCS) in British Columbia. The study’s findings will highlight guidance to assist social workers in centering cultural traditions that promote cultural strengths, resiliency, and a sense of belonging for Indigenous children and youth. This thesis will provide suggestions for interacting with the Indigenous community, parents, relatives, workers, and other delegated agencies. Finally, this thesis will explore how one social worker’s dream influences the direction of her practice to build on cultural strengths and spiritual resiliency. / Graduate / 0452 / 0631 / 0628 / kbennett@nifcs.org

Devenir parent en accueillant un enfant en vue de l’adopter en contexte de protection de la jeunesse, dans le cadre du programme Banque-mixte, est une expérience particulière, puisque l’enfant arrive dans la famille sans aucune garantie qu’il pourra être adopté. Également, les parents Banque-mixte, en tant que famille d’accueil, ont l’obligation d’amener l’enfant à des visites avec ses parents d’origine et doivent composer avec la présence d’intervenants dans leur vie privée. À l’aide d’une démarche de théorisation enracinée, la présente étude vise à comprendre comment le parent Banque-mixte développe son sentiment de filiation, c’est-à-dire le sentiment d’être le parent de l’enfant qu’il accueille, alors qu’il n’est ni le parent légal, ni le parent biologique. Des entrevues semi-dirigées ont été réalisées avec 25 parents afin d’aborder des thèmes tels que les motivations sous-jacentes à leur projet parental, l’expérience du processus pour devenir une famille Banque-mixte et la relation avec l’enfant. Les résultats permettent de jeter les bases d’une nouvelle théorie, selon laquelle le sentiment de filiation précède la filiation légale dans ces circonstances. Ainsi, le parent Banque-mixte ne devient pas un parent au moment du jugement d’adoption; il le devient bien avant, à partir du moment où il atteint un point de non-retour, c’est-à-dire où il constate de manière rationnelle ou émotionnelle que cet enfant est le sien. En l’absence d’un lien de sang et d’un lien légal, le parent Banque-mixte construit son sentiment de filiation sur la base de son profond désir d’enfant et de trois piliers qui lui permettent de justifier son sentiment d’être le parent, soit l’exercice du rôle parental, la construction d’une relation significative avec l’enfant, ainsi que la reconnaissance par autrui de son rôle de parent. Lorsque le parent Banque-mixte n’est pas confronté à l’incertitude de voir l’enfant retourner dans son milieu d’origine, il doit patienter en attendant la concrétisation de l’adoption, mais l’absence de filiation légale ne remet pas en question son sentiment d’être le parent. Par contre, le fait de se sentir le parent avant de le devenir légalement peut générer des tensions dans l’expérience du parent Banque-mixte, puisque le statut de famille d’accueil est en dissonance avec le sentiment de filiation. Afin de minimiser les effets indésirables de l’incertitude, les intervenants de l’adoption et de l’enfant développent différentes stratégies pour rassurer et protéger les parents Banque-mixte, en plus de minimiser l’inquiétude quant à la probabilité du retour de l’enfant dans son milieu familial d’origine. Finalement, guidés par leur besoin de vivre leur filiation de manière exclusive, les parents Banque-mixte font l’effort de mettre à distance les parents d’origine, tout en conservant une certaine ouverture uniquement dans le but de permettre à l’enfant d’intégrer sainement ses origines. En conclusion, les retombées pour l’avancement des connaissances, l’amélioration des pratiques et l’élaboration de nouvelles législations sont discutées. / Becoming a foster-to-adopt parent through the mixed-bank program is a particular experience because the child joins the family with no guarantee that an adoption will take place. In addition, mixed-bank parents, as foster parents, are obligated to take the child to visitations with his or her biological parents and have to deal with the presence of social workers who intervene in their private lives. Using a grounded theory approach, this study aims to understand how foster-to-adopt parents develop a sense of parentage, i.e. the sense of being the child’s parent, in a situation when they are neither the legal guardian nor the biological parent. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 parents in order to explore subjects such as the underlying motivations for their parental project, their experience of the process of becoming a mixed-bank family and their relationship with the child. The results can be used to lay the groundwork for a new theory according to which the sense of parentage appears before legal parentage is declared in such circumstances. Thus, the foster-to-adopt parent does not become a parent when the adoption decree comes into effect; he or she becomes a parent well before that moment, starting at the point of no-return, or, the moment when an individual realizes that the child is theirs through reasoning or as the result of an emotional response. In the absence of a blood or legal relationship, the foster-to-adopt parent builds his or her sense of parentage on the basis of a profound desire to have a child as well as on three pillars that allow him or her to justify the feeling of being the child’s parent: occupying the parental role, building a significant relationship with the child and being recognized as the parent by others. When a foster-to-adopt parent does not have to face the uncertainty that the child might be returned to his biological environment, he or she must patiently wait for the adoption to be finalized but the absence of legal parentage does not challenge his or her sense of being the child’s parent. However, feeling like a child’s parent before legally being recognized as such can create tensions for foster-to-adopt parents since the foster family status clashes with their sense of parentage. In order to minimize the unwanted effects of uncertainty, adoption and child social workers develop different strategies to reassure and protect mixed-bank parents as well as minimize the anxiety caused by the possibility that the child might be returned to his or her biological family environment. Lastly, guided by their need to have an exclusive kinship, foster-to-adopt parents try to distance biological parents while maintaining a certain degree of openness for the sole purpose of allowing the child to accept his or her origins in a healthy manner. In conclusion, the implications of this study on the advancement of knowledge, the improvement of practices and the drafting of new legislation will be discussed.

The co-occurrence of domestic violence (DV) and child maltreatment is high. Response to both problems has historically been via two different systems. However, child protection workers are increasingly asked to respond to this co-occurrence since research has identified that exposure to DV can negatively impact on children and that child maltreatment often co-occurs with DV. This study looks at child protection systems response to families affected by DV by using two research methods. First, a systematic review was conducted using research papers focusing on child protection workers response to families experiencing DV. Second, a critical discourse analysis of current Australian child protection policies was conducted. Findings from the systematic review show that child protection workers' response to abused mothers went from treating them as 'mad' in the 1980s, to labelling them 'failure to protect' in the 1990s and early 2000. These findings showed continued focus on abused mothers rather than on perpetrators of DV. Some contradictions were found around child removal data. However, important links were found between re-notification of children and subsequent removal. Findings from the Australian policy analysis revealed that most policies referred to DV as a child protection issue and used a feminist definition of DV. However, not all states had detailed guidelines on how to intervene safely and effectively with families affected by DV. Discussions and recommendations focus around the pressing need for more DV expertise within child protection systems. It also discusses the issue of responsibility placed on abused mothers while perpetrators of DV remain invisible. Finally, it discusses the response to children exposed to DV compared to the response to children exposed to DV who are also victim of direct child maltreatment. The key recommendations of this study are to have DV expertise within the child protection systems, to empower abused mothers rather than blaming them, which implies putting the responsibility back on the perpetrator of DV and to have resources and systems in place before responding to child exposure to DV as child maltreatment per se.

No description available.

This thesis puts a goal to find out opinions of parents of children placed into institutional care. We are interested in reasons for withdrawal of children from their care and for placement of children to institutional care or into foster care. In the introduction of the theoretical part there is mentioned history of care for orphaned or deferred children and history of development of theory of attachment. In the next part there is paid attention to developmental psychology with respect to emotions and factors shaping physical and especially psychical child's development. The theory of attachment and psychic deprivation is closely related with this issue and they are described in the next parts of this thesis. With respect to chosen issue the next part discusses the essential statutory regulations, especially Act No. 359/ 1999 Coll. as amended about activity of the authority child protection, then Act No. 109/2002 Coll. as amended about the performance of institutional education or protection education and other related acts. In the introduction of the practical part there are analyzed important aspects of the quality research. The practical part itself is oriented to performed interviews with parents and each of them is continuously processed in form of narrative reconstruction. The center of...

The diploma work deals with the problems today's families suffer from, also deals with the support that can be given to dysfunctional families in the Czech Republic. Description of functional family and the family definition itself is the integral part of the diploma work. The text also brings information about criminal activities of under age children, CAN syndrome, divorce and about essential and important laws related to family problematics. The theoretical part is completed with practical examples obtained at interviews. The aim of the diploma work is to define and to analyze the problems, to summarize the assistance and support of today's families and, last but not least, to provide the description of the law leaning on the family assistance.

The thesis deals with the topic of poverty and social exclusion in the context of education on the theoretical and empirical level. The theoretical part of the thesis concentrates on summary of poverty and social exclusion. It specifies the fundamental definitions, concepts and causes of its formation. Further, the thesis deals with the risks in the context of education, concentrates on government strategies, educational policy and institutions in the Czech Republic. Also, it describes the situation in the Czech Republic and concentrates on the demographic development of the Praha- západ county. The aim of the thesis is to find out how the social workers of Městský Úřad Černošice reflect poverty and social exclusion and whether it has any influence on school results. As far as the empirical part of the thesis is concerned, it contains qualitative research based on interviews with the social workers. The content of the interviews is based on the content analysis of the topics in the theoretical part of the thesis. Key words: poverty, social exclusion, child protection, equal access to education, risk behavior, education policy, district Prague-west